19 January 2009

Vegan Cinnamon Streusal Pumpkin Muffins

Baby, it's cold outside!

Frigid. Freezing. Subarctic, even.

And when it gets this cold, it's time to pull out the major comfort food. Cold mornings around here call for hot tea and something warm to nosh on, and this week, nothing sounded better than a plate of hot, soft, streusal topped muffins - the scent of spices filling the warming kitchen as the tea brews and the jam is warmed gently for spreading.

I have been trying to slowly wean my family off of its enormous appetite for eggs - eggs are all good and well, but when you're trying to do the green thing, they can get really pricey; and I've been trying to find ways to cut back from our four dozen a week habit.

A lot of baked goods can get by without the eggs. There are a lot of tricks one can use - pureed veggies and fruits as binders, chia gel, flaxseed 'egg'... the possibilities are there. Of course, you've got to be careful. Subbing in a banana in a standard muffin recipe works well, but it also makes the muffin into a banana muffin. In fact, any of the usual substitutes for eggs may change the recipe enough to make it a totally different beast.

That's not always a bad thing. These muffins started their lives as plain cinnamon streusal muffins. Sweet and warm, but really nothing more than glorified cinnamon toast, in my opinion. The decision to add pumpkin to the mix elevated these to another level of moist goodness, and allowed the streusal topping to enhance the muffin, rather than the muffin being there as the excuse to eat the streusal topping.

We chose to eat this muffin with Earth Balance and a lovely apricot-ginger-lemon marmalade that my grandmother gave me. A fantastic combination, but really gilding the lily. These muffins are fantastic as is.